First, we are only one race
Second, outside of certain countries overly obsessed with skin colour, we in the rest of the world have other ways of hating each other: cultural background, religion, economical status, education.
If everyone spontaneously became the same race the world would realize that the rich are the real problem
Submitted 8 months ago by FenrirIII@lemmy.world to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Comments
Siegfried@lemmy.world 7 months ago
squaresinger@lemmy.world 8 months ago
No, you don’t need genetic differences for racism.
In fact, in most European languages the words “race” and “racism” are talking more about nationalities than about genetically different population groups.
For example, if you read German articles from the 1920s, they often talk about the “German race”, the “French race” or the “English race”. In most European languages the word “race” fell out of use after WW2 and the American meaning of the word “race” was re-imported later on. But the meaning lives on in the meaning of “racism”.
For example, in German a white person from Germany who hates everyone from France irrespective of their skin color is still a racist, while in the USA that wouldn’t qualify as racism.
That’s because neither the word “race” nor “racism” have a clear definition. “Race” is used entirely to discriminate “them” vs “us”. So “race” determines whatever group people in a country want to discriminate against.
In the USA this was clearly a “we, the while ex-european people” vs “them, the black former slaves” and “them, the asians” and “them, the south americans”.
So what would happen if suddenly everyone had the same skin color? People would just shift to the next best thing to discriminate.
Instead of discriminating against black people, just do what has been done in Europe for millennia: Discriminate against slavic people. (The term “slave” comes from “slavic”, because it was so common to keep slavic people as slaves.)
And if nations, religions, languages and regions of origin would also disappear as things to discriminate against, then it would shift to the next thing: people who went to a different school, have a different education or best of all: other types of poor people.
The issue is that humans are heuristics-based beings. Prejudices the result of learning. I’ve had 5 crappy HP printers, so I conclude all HP printers suck. Some friends have had terrible experiences with Fiat cars, so I avoid Fiat cars. I read in the newspaper that Nestle is destroying the planet, so I eat something else.
The problem is that if this is applied to humans, they get unfairly judged for things that are often completely out of their control. The core mechanism that we humans function on happens to be severely destructive in this context. But that’s also why it’s hard to impossible to get rid of racism and similar forms of discrimination because they are so centrally embedded in how we humans function.
queermunist@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
The rich are the ones that make race into a problem.
the_mighty_kracken@lemmy.world 8 months ago
We would have war between gen z and millennials within a week.
zeca@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Any small difference in personality is gonna be used to justify what is wrong with the world.
RBWells@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Bosnia would like to have a word.
TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
… that is not how race works.
we already ARE the same race. we constructed differences to divide us, elevate ourselves and put down outsiders without having to accomplish anything.
Imagine a world where everyone taller than 6 feet is considered a different social class. that’s race.
DeadMartyr@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
I get it and agree mostly. I definitely think socioeconomic classes are more of a defining/dividing line than a heritage you happen to share with someone.
Only <1% of any humans DNA differs, but I think a better point is that everyone is atleast 50th cousins or something (Granted if you share a heritage its much closer)
But also if you told someone like my girlfriend that race isn’t real she’d probably sock you. She’s experienced it and its very real to her.
When we started dating I would actually try to talk about how I don’t understand why she would side with someone solely because their skin was dark like hers and it would be a point of contention. She would literally associate with someone that objectively did something she thinks is reprehensible because of literally only that. She grew up very wealthy and never hurt anyone, guy on the news was someone in and out of prison who literally fired first on the guy that revived him with narcan–but they happen to have the same color of skin.
As a boy other Latinos would literally antagonize me for “acting white” because I would rather read during recess than play football/soccer–because being educated is associated with being white; we were the children of poor families with gangbangers as role models so we must obviously be destined for different things /s
I feel like a lot of racial issues are cultural and self-perpetuating. But my girlfriend in particular was the only black woman in a white conservative town, people would open doors for her friends and close it when it came to her, If I visit her hometown she doesn’t want to be out for long, etc. So I get why it is very important to her.
squaresinger@lemmy.world 7 months ago
The discrimination is real, no question about it.
The thing that’s not “real” is that this is solely about skin color.
In the USA race is defined quite closely along the lines of “continent of origin” (or of origin of the ancestors), because the USA Is a country with worldwide immigration. Thus the groups are larger.
Compare that to Europe, where world-wide immigration only started picking up in the last two decades. Here people can discriminate just as easily within what would be considered the same race in the USA. For example, many people in Austria really hate Serbians. Many Serbians really hate Croatians. Many Croatians really hate Albanians and so on.
This is also visible in the meaning of the words “race” and “racism”. Before WW2 “race” was commonly used in Europe as in the “German race”, the “English race” or the “French race”. And while the term “race” fell out of use after WW2 and was subsequently re-imported from the USA with the USA-meaning, the original meaning lives on in the meaning of “racism”.
For example, if a French man hates all the English, this wouldn’t be racism in the USA (since both are from the same “race” by US-definition), it would totally be racism in most European languages.
The “social construct” part of the discrimination is along which lines discrimination happens. There’s nothing “natural” about discriminating along the lines of US-race. Discrimination can happen just as viciously along any other line.
And that certainly doesn’t mean people don’t suffer from it. But it also means that making sure everyone is as equal as possible (e.g. by eliminating US-race) won’t stop discrimination.
TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
socially constructed things are very real. I don’t know who the fuck let that fart out in our society, to make people think that when they hear “it’s a social construct” they hear “it’s not real!” pretty frustrating
what it means is that it’s an arbitrary thing based on mostly nothing except history and all it would take to change it is for us to act differently towards it.
but the history behind it is very real, so we can’t just eliminate race by pretending it isn’t real. we have to acknowledge the impacts, respect the differences, and work towards making the idea of race obsolete. that’ll probably take a few thousand years lol
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
Hahahahahaha no, look at India.
plyth@feddit.org 8 months ago
India
At least top and bottom are about race.
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
What is race though, the Irish and Italians weren’t white till what the 50s?
haloduder@thelemmy.club 8 months ago
I wish, but no.
For one, they would blame religion.
Barring that, they would find any other differences among us to blame.
Barring that, rich people will use their power and influence to make sure we find some way to blame each other instead of them.
mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Look. I live in a small town. The people one town over are dumb as fuck and ugly inbreeds.
They say the same about us.
See the problem? What we need is for the fucking psychologists to step up their game and develop bulletproof tests for sociopaths.
Keep them out of positions of any power and we’re well on our way for a golden age of humanity.
rational_lib@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Nah they would just invent new races. What’s the point of race? What does it mean exactly? Notice that the races in the US at least roughly align with economic classes.
That’s not an accident. Obviously without the concept of races, people would still have different skin color and hair, but the implications would be entirely different. Culture, neighborhoods, etc. wouldn’t be separated. And most importantly, it would be ever so slightly harder for rich people to make the majority feel like they’re in the same group as them.
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 8 months ago
A see a few people here saying “they” when we should be using “we.” Just by using “they” you’re exhibiting the mindset of “they, not me” and “us vs them.” Racism is just one facet of it.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
all people have like 99.9% of their DNA in common, that hasn’t stopped them from waging wars in the past.
Jhex@lemmy.world 8 months ago
nah… equally looking people, indistinguishble from each other, have managed levels of hate high enough to attemp genocide
lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Right. Like, can you imagine what society would be like if we let bald people vote? /s
monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world 8 months ago
That demon odd left handed!!!
leftthegroup@lemmings.world 8 months ago
Or better yet, everyone appears to be whatever the new mono-race is, but in mirrors and other reflections and photos, racists see their least favorite race.
That way they still get to suffer.
UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world 8 months ago
There’s still Religious bigotry… That’s worked as an alternative for eons
vane@lemmy.world 8 months ago
People will argue about something else. You can change the parameters of the simulation but you can’t change the outcome.
Auli@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
We are all the same race we are just different colours. Can you imagine any other animals fighting over their looks.
SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
But what race?
Apocalypteroid@lemmy.world 8 months ago
400m
melsaskca@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Greed everywhere is the real problem. The rich are just successful in their greed.
ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Humans never evolved past tribes.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
The British have never needed race to start fights with the French.
roscoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Fucking Gauls.
roofuskit@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Race was invented by them to divide us. They’ll just invent something else.
dil@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
Indian hate goes up whenever india related policies go into effect, trump tarrifs india and no one gived a fk since all day see is normalized indian hate for months prior
Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Absolutely. Religion, language, country of origin, gender, age, there’s no shortage of useless ways to divide people. Our differences aren’t the issue, the issue is the rich and powerful exploiting our differences to pit us against each other.
breecher@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
They already use gender, sexuality, nationality, anything really. Race is just one of many strings on the harp of bigotry.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
Let me tell you a bit bout a guy that I’ve seen.
A man known as Sylvester McMonkey McBean.
MrEff@lemmy.world 8 months ago
TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
lol right. I wonder what race OP imagines
Kolanaki@pawb.social 8 months ago
We’d still find ways to focus on what makes us different and fight about it.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Kolanaki@pawb.social 8 months ago
Even identical conjoined twins with one body and two heads who share every experience, have different perspectives. One sees slightly more to the left, the other more to the right.
kibiz0r@midwest.social 8 months ago
Idk man. The Sneetches “got really quite wise on that day”, but they still never guillotined Sylvester McMonkey McBean.
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 8 months ago
That, mate, is the best comparison.
if_only@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
It seems the sneetches wisdom knows very specifically defined bounds
Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
They’d still argue over religion. And what sports team they cheer for. And whatever else the billionaire owned media could decide to distract them with.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
If I really wanted an excuse to hate people, I’d hate people who make dumb complaints about movies
thermal_shock@lemmy.world 8 months ago
People who can’t dont their blinkers
People with no regard to those around them
People who litter or don’t clean up after their dog
The list goes on.
Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
But To be fair, why was Gandalf the White just waiting around in the forest for Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas to stumble upon him?
MTK@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Twist, it is a completely novel race, no one looks normal anymore
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
I’d like for everyone to have green skin and antennae
MTK@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I was thinking less alien, more realistic.
Maybe everyone is now a vaguely human looking Dusky Leaf Monkey.
Imagine the skin color patterns, being extra hairy, and looking somewhere between cute and uncanny valley.
collapse_already@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
My favorite part of this idea is the thought of white supremacists waking up and finding themselves to be black.